Nteh’áh
Nteh’áh, pronounced [ntẽ̤˩ʔã̤˥], is a Deep Dimensional language spoken somewhere in the ŋorld.
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Dorsal | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n̪ ⟨nh⟩ | n | ɲ ⟨ny⟩ | ʔ̃ <’> | |
| Stop | p | t̪ ⟨th⟩ | t | k ⟨k⟩ | ʔ <¯’> | |
| b | d̪ ⟨d⟩ | ɾ ⟨r⟩ | g ⟨g⟩ | ɢ ⟨gg⟩ | ʔ̂ <ˆ’> | |
| Continuant | w | l̪ ⟨l⟩ | s | j | h |
- /k g/ are [c ɟ] after the front vowels /i e a/, and before /n̪ t̪ d̪ l̪ j/.
- /ɲ/ is [ŋ] after the back vowels /u o ɔ/, and before any consonant except /j/.
- /ɲɲ/ is [ŋŋ].
- /w j/ are [ɸ ç] before /t̪ t k s/.
- /l̪/ are [ɬ̪] before /t̪/, but [ɬ] before /t k s/.
- /ʔ/ is a typical glottal stop, /ʔ̃/ promotes nasal allophony, /ʔ̂/ gives the preceding high tone vowel a falling tone
Tones
Nteh’ah has 2 phonemic tones: high and low. They apply to entire syllables, not the individual vowels within them. Monosyllabic words do not have contrastive tone. Their phonetic tone adapts to that of surrounding words. Polysyllabic words must have both high tone(s) and low tone(s), not just one of them. /ʔ̂/ and codal /ɢ/ give the preceding high vowel a falling tone. When this occurs, they may lenite to approximants [ʔ̞] and [ʁ̞]. Monosyllabic affixes do have contrastive tone, and polysyllabic affixes can be monotonal. High tones are romanized with an acute accent and low tones are not marked.
Vowels
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | Long | Short | Long | |
| High | i | iː ⟨ii⟩ | u | uː ⟨uu⟩ |
| Mid | e | eː ⟨ee⟩ | o | oː ⟨oo⟩ |
| Low | a | aː ⟨aa⟩ | ɔ ⟨ǫ⟩ | ɔː ⟨ǫǫ⟩ |
| Syllabic Consonants | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| High Tone | ḿ | ń | ŋ́ ⟨ńy⟩ |
| Low Tone | m̀ | ǹ | ŋ̀ ⟨ǹy⟩ |
- /i(ː) u(ː)/ are always nasalized.
- /i u/ become [ɲ ŋ͡mʷ] if preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant.
- Nasals /m n̪ n ɲ ʔ̃/ nasalize adjacent vowels.
- /h/ makes the voiced sounds in its syllable breathy, and is deleted if not preceded by a vowel.
- Vowels have retracted tongue root when adjacent to /ɢ/.
- /ŋ̍/ is [ɲ̍] adjacent to /n̪ t̪ d̪ l̪ j/.
Phonotactics
(C)(C)(ʔ)V(V,L,W)(ʔ,ʔ̂)(C) - C: consonant, V: vowel, L: length, W: semivowel /w j/
Onset CC can only occur if the first C is /m n̪ n ɲ b s w j/ second C is /m n̪ n ɲ b w j t̪ t k ʔ̃ b d̪ g ɢ/. L means either a lengthening of the previous vowel or a codal /s/.
- /n t d̪ g ɾ/ can only occur in onset positions.
- /p h/ can only occur in coda positions.
- Continuants /s w j/ cannot precede sonorants /m n̪ n ɲ w j/ in onset clusters.
- Glottal stops cannot be adjacent.
- Plosives cannot be geminated.
Grammar
Nteh’ah has a prefix si- which marks a predicate whose predicand is a pronoun. Peculiarly, when si- is used, both the pronoun and copula are omitted. For example, when attached to noe (death), sinoe means "he/she/they/it is dead." Words with this prefix may follow the word their pronoun refers to, however that referent must have the -ˆ’ suffix, which marks the end of a syntactic phrase. For example, tó’o’ sinoe means "the guest, he/she/they/it is dead." This does not apply if the predicand composes a relative clause for the predicand.
The pronoun does not need to be a personal pronoun, but other classes of pronouns can only be inferred if their referent was previously established, not from context alone. Sinoe can only mean "each one is dead" if what "each" refers to was already said.
Aspect is marked with the last vowel of a word. V denotes perfective aspect, Vː denotes imperfective aspect, VʔV denotes interrupted action, ʔVʔ denotes interrupting action, ʔV denotes inchoative aspect, Vʔ denotes terminative aspect.
| Basic | Inchoative | Terminative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Interrupted | Interrupting | Basic | Interrupted | Basic | Interrupted | |
| Perfective | amú bark | - | am’ú’ interrupt with barking | am’ú begin bark | - | amú’ end bark | - |
| Imperfective | amúu barking | amú’ú interrupted barking | am’úu’ interrupting with barking | am’úu begin barking | am’ú’ú interrupted beginning of barking | amúu’ end barking | amú’ú’ interrupted ending of barking |
Tense is marked at the beginning of a clause with a mandatory particle. Tense is split into past, present, and future, which combine with immediate, near, distant, 1st-person relative, and 3rd-person relative. 1st-person relative is used when the speaker is describing two events, one being the event described in the clause and the other being an event involving themselves or the addressee. This second event may have been previously mentioned, yet to be mentioned, or inferred from context. 3rd-person relative is the same but with the second event involving someone/something else. The immediate, near, and distance categories are not entirely accurate when it comes to the present tense, but they can be said to describe events that happen (in the speaker's perception) at the exact moment of the present, roughly in the present, and an extent from the near past to near future crossing the present, respectively.
| Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate | ’ah - ’ah eeh (just found out) | mki - mki eeh (finding out at exactly this moment) | aab - aab eeh (just about to find out) |
| Near | ŋ̀ - ŋ̀ eeh (found out) | ro - ro eeh (currently finding out) | wbe - wbe eeh (will find out) |
| Distant | gih - gih eeh (found out long ago) | tǫp - tǫp eeh (have been and will continue to find out) | arás - arás eeh (will find out in a long time) |
| 1P Relative | thuuh - thuuh eeh (found/finding/will find after I/you _) | kaw - kaw eeh (found/finding/will find at the time I/you _) | sa’ - sa’ eeh (found/finding/will find before I/you _) |
| 3P Relative | mnae - mnae eeh (found/finding/will find after he/she/they/it _) | gathíi - gathíi eeh (found/finding/will find at the time he/she/they/it _) | yun - yun eeh (found/finding/will find before he/she/they/it _) |
Lexicon
Words in Nteh’ah do not have a set part of speech. Their most basic form, known as the core, is modified through inflection, word order, or context in order to assume the role of a specific part of speech. Nouns retain their core form while other parts of speech tend to require a change. The English parts of speech in the vocabulary list do not change the fact that the Nteh’ah words are in their core form.
Translations
Vocabulary List
| List 1 | List 2 | List 3 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nteh’ah | English | Notes | Nteh’ah | English | Notes | Nteh’ah | English | Notes |
| tass | disaster | noe | death | ’aŋké | laugh | |||
| maǫ | want | ián | rules | tó’u | habitat | also host | ||
| ikí | smart | tówi | rainbow | tó’o | guest | |||
| eeh | come into knowing | la’ | bad | hai | love | familial, platonic, romantic | ||
| eh | discover | amú | dog | also bark | ńde | love | for a thing or quality | |
| tajh | bus | níni | easy | ómi | good | |||
| kóono | person | nte | build | téhseeh | joke | including pranks | ||
| kóonu | humanity | sajh | creepy | nteh’áh | Nteh’áh culture | |||
| ’aih | pain | o | give | btu | appreciate | also like | ||
| mbáki | north | oe | 1.SG | |||||
| tonó | south | ii | 2.SG | |||||
| báha | east | ahn | 3.SG | |||||
| íie | west | |||||||